[Match Thread] 3rd ODI (South Africa v Zimbabwe)

[sloandog]

MASSIVE PROBLEM BRO !!

[clikcspeed]

Dear me! I hope Utseya and Dabengwa can do some damage control - a lot of it. Particularly disappointed by Masakadza and Chigs (again!) but again the 'blame' is on the bowling.

Like I pointed out earlier, I'm now deeply concerned about the psychology of our boys. The bowlers are not giving the batsmen any reason to believe and I think thats 1 of the reasons leading to todays poor performance with the bat. Can you even think how Taylor or Masakadza will be thinking when you are chasing 400?

[clikcspeed]

Dear me! I hope Utseya and Dabengwa can do some damage control - a lot of it. Particularly disappointed by Masakadza and Chigs (again!) but again the 'blame' is on the bowling.

Like I pointed out earlier, I'm now deeply concerned about the psychology of our boys. The bowlers are not giving the batsmen any reason to believe and I think thats 1 of the reasons leading to todays poor performance with the bat. Can you even think how Taylor or Masakadza will be thinking when you are chasing 400?

[bayhaus]

Just came back from the ground, watched the match with free tickets courtesy of Zim cricket handed to us personally by Lovemore Banda. Formalities out of the way. Now for the real business. I have a few observations that I made.

Captaincy
(1) ZC need to swallow their pride and appoint Taibu or Price as our captain because these are two guys who can really lead from the front and always keep their heads up. If we want to win the World cup we have to sort out the head which is the captaincy. We couldnt hear the presentation during Eltons speech but I bet you pommie asked the same question s as usual and Elton replied as usual with the addition of the Batting collapse.

Elton
(2) The captaincy is going to cost Elton his CAREER. I will say it again it will cost him his CAREER. He needs to resign as captain for his own sake. Field setting is appalling(Or the bowlers not bowling to the field) But it didn't look effective.

Bowling
(3) Something has to be done about our bowling. As quoted in other posts how do you come out to chase 400 runs (Although the ground was tiny!) Our bowlers seem to be playing for SA trying to fix our batsmen. It was cool to see Shingi live for the first time, I think he does have potential and he is well built. Our bowling coach has his work cut out. Then Chibhabha came to bowl and I knew we had run out of Ideas. Correct me if I am wrong one of the go to people to break partnerships is Hamilton Masakadza! Can someone check the stats. And the business of taking out the spinners when they are doing well only for the batsmen to get back into their groove. The thing with SA pitches especially when you are playing against SA these guys are used to playing pace and the grounds favour pace. If you bring mediocre pace who dont even move the ball in the air or off the deck then you are going to be cannon fodder for SA batsmen.

Batting
Taylor and Hamilton came in with intent, and we were hoping the score would reach at least 50 for 0 after 5 of six overs, Taibu and Craig played well and looked quite comfortable before Tibba gave his wicket away to Botha! Will skip the rest and go straight to our tail ending partnership between Utseya and Shingi who hit two good sixes. Utseya cored 24 not out and the best shot being a pull for four off Tsotsobe. Usteya is not going anywhere anytime soon. I think if Grant flower is reallky going to be effectibe he must just focus om coaching and getting the best for the team instead of juggling to keep form and a place in the very side he is trying to coach. His attention is divided and in the end he will give half for batting and half for coaching. Chibhabha has also bulked up, was surprised to see how bulky he was compared to the last tiome I saw him.

SA
AB was always going to take a bowling of our calibre apart cos he is a class batsmen though we did well to dismiss the openers fairly early.

The Supporters
The supporters, a group of about 50 official supporters and then a few littered in the crowd around the ground, kept the fire burning through out the match and what a goo time we had. In this depratment we utterly murdered the South Africans, They are dead boring when it comes to supporting cricket. You would think that they were the ones being beaten! There was a supporters club which was formed informally will see how that grows.

ZC vs CSA
CSA had FREE SA flags handed out at the gate something that ZC needs to look at and many Zimbas were wearing Bafana Bafana soccer jeserys cos there is nowhere to get Zim memorabalia in SA.

Photos I will provide a link tomorrow.

Well after all has been said a done we are still Zim and we are going to get there!

[bayhaus]

TOO MANY people bowled 9!

[Boundary]

Thanks for the update bayhaus, at least you had a great time. I felt my blood boiling over while watching on tv with nothing to soothe me - unlike you guys with the braai and other supporters. I switched channels and came over for the presentation. Pommie asked the same questions, Chiggs said the same things, but Smith was slightly complimentary in saying we're better than last year. Which is true but we're not in the top 10 so I'm not sure how that helps.

Our batting needs a slight tweak but it's improving. What worries me is that the SA attack has not been ferocious or quick but they managed to undo us through field placements (captaincy) and line/length (bowling). Indians can eat that kind of attack. But credit where it's due, it's an improving aspect of our game.

The fielding was sloppy, generally speaking. If SA score 399, let them earn all of it. But this area can be improved and was affected by the one sided nature of the games. SA improved within 3 games, we must be demanding similar standards.

Bowling was an absolute NIGHTMARE. I'm not exaggerating - generally SA seamers were marginally quicker but ours totally failed to bowl a consistent line or anything resembling what the field was set for. I say take all of them out (except Shingi), let them learn their craft in the Logan Cup. No wonder there are so many draws in that competition! If Mutizwa can be asked to be patient, the same should apply to Mpofu, Rainsford, Nicolson etc. If we look towards the world cup Utseya, Price and Cremer take 30 overs, we need to Shingi to take 10 and the rest to be shared between part timers. Why Shingi? Because he showed promise just as he'd done against WI: he has a slower ball, a good yorker, medium fast pace but most importantly guts. He needs consistency but he's the only one who can to cover this important gap in the squad right now. Everyone else should tour the world with the A side, play club cricket overseas and listen to their franchise coaches. There's nothing else we can do, let's play to our strengths.

As for captaincy I think as a matter of urgency, Price should be appointed for a transitional 2 or 3 years while grooming a long term one, whether it be Hamilton, Taylor, Taibu or Chiggs. We can't throw Elton into the deep end like that, losing our number 7 pinch hitter in the process. Price is experienced, isn't overawed and will retire soon when our seamers come onstream and the side doesn't require 3 regular spinners anymore.

[Tinashce Ruswa]

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[shumbat]

Elton needs to concentrate of his game and Price to lead for a transitional while grooming, thank you. Batting is improving but i think Flower should stay in the middle order for now to avoid collapses like yesterday. Bowling don't know where to start. In terms of pace we were at par with SA Seamers, but we had no game or consistence. I think Zim bowlers are under pressure to bowl fast, forgetting about the basics like line and length and platying to the batsman's weakness. Lot of hard work for Streak.